Whole Wheat Bread? You Ain’t No Rye!

In the battle of breads, whole wheat has held the “best for blood sugars” title. But when researchers at Lund University pit it against rye, wheat lost.

It has been conventional wisdom that when grains are processed, the fiber and nutrient-rich exteriors are lost. But with rye, the good stuff is on the inside, too. Moreover, whole rye flour has twice the nutrients as whole wheat flour.

So why isn’t rye more popular? Rye has less gluten and makes denser bread. This makes it more filling – and keeps you fuller thus skinnier! – but also limits its mass appeal in most of the world.

Unfortunately, we don’t yet know why types of rye are best for blood sugars. And in the United States, most rye loafs are actually made from multiple types of rye and wheat flour. But if you have a good bakery in town, ask about rye with whole grains.

Liza Ros謬 a doctoral candidate in Applied Nutrition and Food Chemistry at the Lund University Faculty of Engineering, shares her advice on how to take advantage of the results:

[I]f you want to optimize the health benefits, you should eat porridge or bread made from whole grain, where all the parts of the grain are included.

“This gives you all the benefits of rye. The bran includes many healthful fibers, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. This also helps give a feeling of satiety and helps lower blood sugar responses over the long term. On the other hand, we did not see such good results regarding blood sugar and insulin directly after the meal,” she says.

The researchers also found that mice fed a diet of whole-grained wheat ate more and gained significantly more weight than mice that were fed whole-grained rye. Asked why, Ros謠theorized:

A possible explanation would be that wheat prompts a higher insulin response than rye, which means that the cells in the body can store more fat. The fact that rye contains more soluble fibers than wheat also plays a role, since they probably prevent the uptake of fat and other nutritional substances in the intestine.

Coming Up Next

Find the best grains for blood sugar control. (Why haven’t we done this already?!)

When I was first diagnosed and still eating bread I started reading labels. I noticed a lot of rye bread have different flours in them. So it is important to read the label. I use the WASA Rye crackers because they are all rye. Trader Joes has a sprouted rye bread.

Bruce

what brands are best to eat? How about jewish rye?

Florian

On many of the lists showing the Glycemic Index for different foods, Pumpernickel Bread always has the lowest number compared to other types of bread. I use a No White Carb food plan and substitute Pumpenickel Bread for other breads when it is possible. It works for me. Try it sometime.Where I live there is a brand called Beefsteak Pumpernickel and according to the label the total carbs are 12 gms/slice.

Chris – UK

Hi, I’m from the UK and regularly buy the fresh rye loafs from Sainsbury’s (made in strore) and they have a negligable effect on blood sugar and it’s quite light too.

Bruce Miller

Any bread will raise BG and is OFF limits IF you wish to maintain tight control.Chew it up and test with Clinitest stick and turns black from high sugar content.ALL brad even the myth of “glycemic index” which does not hold up is Non starter for me.

coastman

Two slices of ‘heart healthy’ whole grain bread will raise BG faster and higher than a candy bar. The book ‘Wheat Belly’ tells the horrible truth about wheat. After reading the book I avoid all grains. And the GI is a myth because it only looks at the glucose curve for 2 hours after eating a food. Pasta is like a time bomb for me because the BG spike is delayed. So while it looks good in terms of GI it doesn’t look good to my BG tests.

Carole

I have been using the Lo-Carb breads, but are hard to find. They have 9 carbs and are wheat. Isn’t this okay?For crackers I use Carr’s thin wafer crackers.I am new to diabetes, age 69, Type 2 so have a lot to learn.

Heidr

Bread? No way! I agree with Bruce Miller: the moment I gave up breads and other processed grains my blood glucose control has been astounding! I am healthier than I have ever been. Bread is a memory now and I would not even consider putting it in my mouth.

coastman

I agree completely.

http://www.diabetesdaily.com/edelman/ David Edelman

@bruce it’s not clear what kinds of rye are best. It’s important to look for rye that contains mostly whole grain rye. Most commercial breads that are called rye are made from a mix of flours.@florian and @chris thanks for the advice!@bruce & @heidr I can appreciate that you have cut bread from your diet. Depending upon how insulin resistant you are that can be very helpful. There are others who take insulin, are less insulin resistant, or need carbs before working out. For those, knowing that rye may have far less impact on their blood sugars than white bread is very useful.

Bruce Miller

Bread is bread makes no difference if it is “Wonder bread” white fluff or 12 grain, whole wheat, rye or whatever.If you are like many of us working on maintaining healthy Normal bg levels of 83-85 mg/dl then and resuming a high and healthy quality of life then ALL bread and grains are simply not on the menu.If one subscribes to the HBA1c of 6.5% or that 120 to 130 mg/dl is Normal for a diabetic and believes that it, keep in mind that is like saying a tumor is Normal for a cancer patient.Once I discovered I was a late onset T2 (often called T1.5) I essentially decided I need to learn all the physiology I could like going back to graduate school. I live and work in the rainforests of a developing country so need to be 100% in control of my on health and treatment regimens.Diabetes can be a progressive disease IF not managed correctly. Long term elevated BG and or daily oscillations up and down from eating large carb loads and using industrial doses of insulin will not keep you stable. My A1c is now down to 5.1% and still always to go to reach 4.5-4.6% to have normal BG levels as a healthy person.All the neuropathy, vision, gastroparesis, blurred vision and other complications I had have abated since strictly limiting carbs to 4-5 g at breakfast, 10-12 g for mid day and evening meals. Now down to only 7 u of Levemir at bed time to control the dawn phenomenon spikes I was having on arising. Pre meal I am now down to 3  4 u Novolog/Humalog fast acting.Most days post prandial 2-4 hours post meals is 84-86 mg/dl.I also lost 35 lbs over a 5 month period.I see far too many folks with diabetes just passively accepting the sequelae of the constant or often peaking bg levels. Anything over 140 mg/dl has been shown to cause nerve damage.For me it was a now brainer lose my vision, sit back passively and fade slowly into deteriorating health OR take charge and stop eating all the carbs.Good luck all It is not easy, but sure beats the alternative.Bruce Miller, PhD.

Bruce Miller

Opps sorry forgot to mention..Not insulin resistant at all. 6′ and was down to 150 lbs but now stable at 158 lb since increasing fats and protein in the diet.Carbs are limited to green veg, cheeses etc. keeping in mind proteins also will raise your bg levels, albeit more slowly.

http://sstrumello.blogspot.com/ Scott

What we call “rye” bread in the U.S. has very little rye content at all, in fact, rye bread should be dark in color more along the lines of pumpernickel (which in the U.S. is colored with malasses, which is very high in carbs). But in Scandinavia, especially Finland, genuine rye rules and is quite common). Your best bet is to make it yourself, as even Whole Foods’ bakery has relatively little rye and more wheat flour, but be advised that you will have to search hard and avoid overly-processed rye flours widely sold in the U.S., so you may have to order your ingredients by mail. One can only hope that U.S. agri-business learns accommodates changing tastes in the U.S., but I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting!

hburke

a 12 year type2 diabetic. have satyed on pills. no it is not fun but it an important realization that this is not a diet and just card coutning,it is a change of life style. if you want to continue to function and be productive, well yess you must read lables and figure out for yourself what will keep yoour aci index number at the 5 or 6.0 level/ most important of all you have to get off yout fanny and exercise. No it is not fun walking by yourself but it is better than not walking at all. Good luck everyone. by the way you coould be dealing with heart disease and anemia.

Bruce Miller

hburke,Why not insulin?Pills have side effects and forgo all bread, grains etc.Once you normalize your BG levels at 83-84 mg/dl most of the complications go away.Easy Not on your life…But going blind or losing feet would be more than an inconvenience.A1c is now down to 5.1 but need to reach 4.7% to become really healthy and symptom free.